Summon Necro

[CaptainCheese]

Summon Necro

So i plan on using these skills.
Skeleton mastery-20
Skeleton warrior-20
Skeleton mage-20
Revive-20
amplify damage-1
Courpse explosion-1

Which golem should i use and how much should i put in summon resists, and golem mastery?

 

[Myrakh-2]

Read a bit through the forum/guides --- maxing revives is considered useless by many. 1 point +skills tends to be sufficient.

You can max CE instead Yes, I'm a maxed-CE fan...

You probably SHOULD have decrepify; it's one of the things most(?) people agree on.

Since you have mages, getting Lower Resist isn't a bad thing either --- it does help alot vs. PI/stoneskin, "hard PI", or generally monsters with high pyhsical resistance.

As for golems... there are those and those, but "1 point in clay, 1 point in mastery and 1 point in summon resist, and let +skills raise them" is a very common and viable route, as the clay golem is a great tank.

 

[CaptainCheese]

Corpse Explosion really maxed? I find it a waste to put more then 1-5 skills in it..and golems is a iron golem better then clay?

 

[Myrakh-2]

Corpse explosion deserves whatever people feel it's worth. Since I'm not a poison or bone hybrid, I had enough skillpoints to max CE, and at lvl 28 it covers a respectable area

As for the golem... I can only give the you the view of someone who's using clay: clay can be cast anywhere, without an item. So it can be used for crowd control, and to take some heat off your skellies if a fanatism extra strong pack shows up. Or place it between your skellies and those archers. Or whatever. Monsters love the clay golem; they tend to go where he is.

Essentially, the golem is your only castable minion --- point and cast. Iron doesn't do that, so it's just another stupid minion, brainlessly attacking the closest enemy. I feel that I already have enough minions of this type; I don't need another one.

Also, the slow effect is not to be underestimated --- if you've ever seen an act boss slowed by clay, decrep and cold magi, you might agree I also see it when I kill Pindleskin: when I enter the building, I cast my clay golem ahead to stop the group. He takes some beating, but usually doesn't even die (which wouldn't matter, since if he does I can just recast him) because the zombies are all slowed down...

I often have to recast him once or twice vs. Lister and his friends, mostly because I cast him right in the middle of the pack, and I use amp on them, not decrep.

In any case, you DO have the iron golem as well if you are using revives, so you can try both. Golems aren't damage dealers, so maxing one is unusual at best.

EDIT: when looking at iron golem, I always look at what *I* can do with it. Insanely rich people can make iron golems from things like IK mauls to get crushing blow, or use other godly items to make a minion with properties that the skellies just don't have. Since the golem WILL get lost eventually, this is definitely no option for me

 

[CaptainCheese]

Ok im probably going for the clay golem, but does the iron golem die when you leave a game? Cant remember.

 

[maladroit2000]

I have a golem question too:

I am skelemancer (pretty standard distribution of skill points: max skeles, skele mastery and CE) and I have decided to use a clay golem. I have +12skills in the summoning tree and I am not sure whether to max clay golem, max golem mastery or put about equal points in both. I am aiming to use him as a tank so big life is the most important attribute.

Also I think it would be very helpful indeed if someone was able to make a definitive guide to the golems - I have looked through previous threads and there are masses on which golems to choose but lots of the information is contradictory and confusing.

Here are a few issues that I would find helpful to have explained:

1 The above question - whether to max mastery, the golem skill itself or put points in both.

2 Whether any of the golems are viable monster killers or merely tanks.

3 Which golem makes the best tank (I guess different situations merit a different golem)

4 The skill screen claims my iron golem does 22-33 dam even when summoning from different items. Is this the correct damage? Is it possible to work out the correct damage?

5 Exactly how the attributes of the item are transferred to the iron golem.

I am sure all the information is floating out there somewhere in the forum but I found a lot of it confusing (and sometimes clearly wrong). A couple of helpful links might be nice too

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[essojay]

There are only three ways an iron golem can die (other than deleting the char, of course):

1. It dies from getting down to 0 life
2. You die
3. You summon another golem (of any kind)

Leaving game doesn't make you have to summon another golem. But iron golems are pretty weak in general and will die easily.

If you're already a fishymancer, the golem won't have many opportunities actually to close in on monsters and attack them. Much more likely is that they'll run around uselessly while your skellies do their work and then, die.

... so ...

1 The above question - whether to max mastery, the golem skill itself or put points in both.

I don't recommend you put any more than one point into either golem or its mastery. If you must, put points in the mastery. The increase in their speed is great.

2 Whether any of the golems are viable monster killers or merely tanks.

Golems are not viable monster killers, but they can work as tanks. Against act bosses or other players, though, they are merely a distraction and last about 0.1 seconds.

3 Which golem makes the best tank (I guess different situations merit a different golem)

The clay golem usually have the most amount of life. It also slows down monsters, making them attack the golem less. This is another plus for the clay golem. When being attacked by fire attacks, the fire golem is the best tank.

4 The skill screen claims my iron golem does 22-33 dam even when summoning from different items. Is this the correct damage? Is it possible to work out the correct damage?

Yes. IIRC you add the damage of the weap you made the golem with and add it to the 22-33.

5 Exactly how the attributes of the item are transferred to the iron golem.

Most of them just transfer additively. Mods like indestructible don't work.

 

[izrafel]

clay golem all the way!!
clay golem+decrep+holy freeze merc = very slow badies

 

[Tengu]

Edit: ehheh, got beaten to answering the golem q's - by 7 hours

 

[Myrakh-2]

I am skelemancer (pretty standard distribution of skill points: max skeles, skele mastery and CE) and I have decided to use a clay golem. I have +12skills in the summoning tree and I am not sure whether to max clay golem, max golem mastery or put about equal points in both. I am aiming to use him as a tank so big life is the most important attribute.

Well, I happen to play a Skelemancer as well, and it just so happens that he has +12 in the summoning tree (including +all skills), so all the 1-point skills are at lvl 13.

Gumby ends up with more than 5K life, and I hardly ever have to recast him because he's getting red (99% of the recasts are of strategic nature). Most common recasts are required vs. strong fanatism/might/etc. packs, vs. Lister and his boys, and sometimes vs. Pindle and his group. Bremt and his group can do some serious golem damaging as well, but when he starts getting red I just throw him in the middle of all that hydra crap again --- I don't usually see where to put him, since I stay away from all that fire and lightning and god-knows-what.

He lasts quite long even there (hardly ever need to recast more than once). And keep in mind, I use gumby as a punchball, and to draw attacks away from my skellies --- so I place him where he gets hit a lot, since every hit/missile he "eats" won't hit my skellies or merc.

Recasting gumby is never required vs. act bosses, although occasionally Andy seems to be able to poison him rather bad. But then again, "Q" (my golem hotkey) and a click with the right mouse button fixes that instantly. Mephi, Diablo and Baal are just jokes and never require recasts.

I never felt compelled to add more hardpoints to the golem skills. 1 point with +12 from items is definitely enough, IMHO. I do have some unallocated skillpoints, but the golem skills aren't even on the candidate list...

The only exception is Diablo Clone, as usual --- I need to recast Gumby more than once there But since there isn't a lot of other stuff to cast (I only refresh decrep and Gumby... no need to firewall the dclone, since with 95% resist all that would just be a waste of mana).

 

[Mad Mantis]

There are only three ways an iron golem can die (other than deleting the char, of course):

1. It dies from getting down to 0 life
2. You die
3. You summon another golem (of any kind)

They can also get lost. That means that they don’t tele back when they stray too far from you. It doesn't happen that frequently, but it is something to consider when making an IG from an expensive item.

 

[Tengu]

They can also get lost. That means that they don’t tele back when they stray too far from you. It doesn't happen that frequently, but it is something to consider when making an IG from an expensive item.

Yeah it happens every now and then, so you better think hard before you make that "beast" caddy iron golem

 

[Kyo]

Even if i had numerous BEAST runeword weapons lying around i dun think i would even consider making a IG from a precious thing like that....but that just me.

 

[CaptainCheese]

Wow, thanks for the great responses, now i have no more questions.